Categorization of Real and Replica Objects by 14- and 18-month-old Infants

摘要

In studies of infant categorization (especially sequential touching), replicas of real objects are utilized on the assumption that infants treat replicas as they do reals. Do infants categorize replicas of objects in the same way as they categorize real objects? This question was addressed in a sequential touching task, where 14- and 18-month-olds were presented with four sets of objects: real phones and hairbrushes, real lemons and pears, replica phones and hairbrushes, and replica lemons and pears. On the whole, mean run length and number of contacts did not differ between real and replica objects. Moreover, mean run length was significantly greater than chance for phones and hairbrushes, but not for lemons and pears; both ages categorized the former sets but not the latter. The findings suggest that infants of this age treat replicas as equivalent to reals and that replicas are appropriate stimuli to use in the sequential touching procedure to address questions of young children’s categorization.